87th
Tour de France - Grand Tour

France, July 1 - 23, 2000

Tour
News
for July 22

A few quotes from the winner...

Many of the pundits
were predicting a whitewash by Lance in today's 58.5 km time trial, but
there was also a lot of smart money on Ullrich, who was riding on home
territory and really wanted to snatch a stage win in this year's Tour
de France. So did Armstrong and the battle was joined.

At the end of it,
Armstrong posted the second fastest Tour time trial ever behind Greg Lemond's
famous 24 kilometres into Paris 11 years ago. He accomplished what he
wanted, and now has a stage victory to go with his Maillot Jaune.

"I had the same situation
last year, in that it was important for the maillot jaune to show himself
in the time trial - it's the race of truth and it's important to show
that you are able to win it would have been easy to be conservative and
not take any risks, but instead I really wanted to go out there and show
that I could win," said Armstrong afterwards regarding the race.

On his rival, Jan
Ullrich: "Well he's a great champion and I knew he would ride well today.
We were really in his backyard and you could feel the crowds were willing
him along - it was bit of a fight out there."

On his overall performance:
"I really wanted to win a stage in the Tour - perhaps made a mistake on
Mont Ventoux. The Tour wouldn't be complete if I didn't win a stage, so
now it's complete and I did what I set out to do."

The individual time
trial in Sydney is now his next big objective, and by the way he rode
today and over the past three weeks, he is going to be pretty hard to
top.

Dekker busy

Rabobank's Erik Dekker
has a packed program in front of him after his successful Tour de France.
There will be absolutely no rest for the triple-stage winning Dutchman
as he will race on Monday, July 24 in a criterium in Boxmeer. Following
this he plans to ride in Stiphout, Chaam, Wateringen, Heerlen, Karlsruhe
(Ger), Roosendaal, Surhuisterveen, Oostvoorne, Maarheeze, Emmen and Zwolle.

The post-Tour criteriums
are a well established tradition, giving people a chance to watch the
Tour stars parade around their own city. Riders are paid good sums of
money to turn up, and Dekker will earn quite a few Guilders from the above
program.

The racing is quite
stylized with the local favourite often being given a lead for a few laps
before the designated winner makes his move. Sometimes, amateur racers
are invited to these shows, but if they put a foot out of line (i.e. attack
from the gun), the pro's take a dim view. The race is usually decided
before it actually starts, but post Tour criteriums are an enjoyable and
colorful spectacle for the public.

More on Salvatore Commesso

Yesterday's stage
winner, Salvatore Commesso has had few wins in his career, but they've
certainly been big. The 25 year old turned professional with Saeco in
1998 after winning the European U23 road championships in 1997. His five
wins include two Tour stages, and one Italian championship. The other
two were in the Memorial Fabio Casartelli criterium this year and a stage
in the Giro del Capo in 1998.

Prize money in the Tour
so far

Kelme-Costa Blanca
have had the most lucrative Tour so far (as of stage 17), winning a total
of FF 473,000 ($US 65,000) for their efforts in the mountains, combativity
and stage wins. They are followed by Rabobank, with FF 400,000 and Mapei
with 340,500. The total Tour prize money is FF 12,100,500 ($US 1.7 million),
with approximately half of this being given to the GC.

The winner of the
Tour gets FF 2.2 million ($US 335,000), with second overall taking half
this. The KOM and points jerseys are worth FF 150,000 ($US 21,000). Even
the last finisher gets about 400 US dollars.

Valkenburg for 2002

The Mayor of Valkenburg,
drs. C. Nuytens, will discuss with Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc today
about the possibility of hosting a Tour stage start/finish in 2002. Valkenburg
was the site of a stage finish in 1992, and was the organiser of the World
Road Championships in 1998.

According to Nuytens,
"We can tell Leblanc that we have the financial basis for bringing the
Tour to Valkenburg."